Batman: Odyssey
by MissScorp
Summary: She found the letter stuck between the pages of Homer's Odyssey. That he'd specifically chosen a book about the hero's long journey home was a fact not lost upon her. Next to Dick Grayson, the person whom knew her the best was Bruce Wayne. One-shot. Prequel to Redemption. K for family friendly themes. Complete.


**A/N:** This one-shot is set during events that occur in the **Batman R.I.P** story arc. My other one-shot, **Skittles and Vanilla Ice Cream **also fits into this arc, as does **Red Robin: A Birdie Alone**. This is a prequel to my Red Hood story, **Redemption**.

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She found the letter stuck between the pages of Homer's _Odyssey. _That he'd specifically chosen a book about the hero's long journey home was a fact not lost upon her. Next to Dick Grayson, the person whom knew her the best was Bruce Wayne. Grief rose up to choke her by the throat, blurred her vision, dug raw wounds in her stomach. She stumbled to the window bench and sat there, clutching the envelope with her name scrawled in his flowing hand between her trembling fingers. Two fat balls of wet rolled down her pale cheeks and pooled at the corners of her mouth. Briskly she wiped them away and tore open the envelope to read the final words left her by a man who'd become her hero at eight, her friend at nine, and her father at thirteen.

_Raya,_

_Ah, my darling imp. If you've found this note, it means you've finally come home. Which, if you've finally come home, it can only mean I am either dead, or dying. If so, then know that in this letter are my final words to you. You've always held a very special place in my heart, Raya. You have occupied that space from the moment I felt your tiny arms wrap around my neck and hold on tight. You were so sweetly trusting, never once doubting that the big black figure who was holding you was anything less than than some mythical hero. When all I saw was darkness, you showed me there was light. You reminded a young man with a trust fund and too much anger about how there was more to life than vengeance. You reminded me of what it was to love someone._

_This is why I am leaving this letter to you. I have a request to make of you. It does not seem fair I am leaving this upon your shoulders, but yours are the only ones I think strong enough to weather this particular storm. Dick cannot do this, Tim should not do this, Cassandra will not do this and Damian is not old enough for this. I want you to help my son, Jason. I know you have witnessed his bloody path of mayhem and vengeance since his return a year ago. I know you have been party to the fights between us and him. I even know that you stopped Jason from murdering Tim in San Francisco a few months ago. I also know what I am asking of you is a very selfish request. I only hope you can understand why I am making it._

_I knew, from the very beginning, I knew he was dangerous. There was so much anger in him, so much hate. He'd been alone for so long. I wanted to help him as I helped you. As I helped Dick. I wanted to pull him back from that dark cliff you both were once tottering upon. Against Alfred's advice and my own better judgement, I brought Jason home. I made him my son. And I immediately dumped him into a mask instead of getting him the help he so obviously needed. __Instead of being the father he needed; deserved, I_ made him my protege, my partner.

_I've tried to rationalize my decision. I've tried to justify my choices. I have told myself that if I had not made him Robin, he would have grown to do wrong. He was already hanging upon that precipice between good and bad. He was different from Dick in so many ways. Still full of the same raw potential and technical ability, but harder, more corrupted by the things he'd seen, that he'd had to do in order to survive. He was a different kind of fearless, overly bold and brash at times, a bit reckless and ruthless, but 'gifted'._

_He tried his best, Raya. I know he tried his best. I know he tried to be the best Robin he could be. For a time, I thought he was going to grow into his role, adopt our ways and become a force for good. Then I got him killed. My partner. My protege. My son. My fault. I own that. I'll carry that like I carry everything else. It's my fault that the Joker was able to get his hands upon him. It is my fault for not seeing, not suspecting that my son was in danger. I failed him. I failed him as a father. I failed him as Batman. I wasn't there when he needed me. And I will carry that guilt, that regret, forever._

_But now he's back and he's not the same boy I took in. He's even angrier than he was, more brash and even more bold. He's fueled by his hatred, driven by it. All for me. For the Joker. He's taken everything I've taught him and turned it back upon me; upon Dick and even Tim. It's a hell of my own making. Even after every terrible thing he has done since his return, I am unable to give up on him. I believe there is still good in him. I believe that beneath all his anger and hate is the boy who wants to help people. He just cannot temper his impatience and reconcile our way of justice as being the way which is right. Not in the way that you have. Not in the way that Dick has. He's the boy whom I failed. I'm hoping he's the man whom you will save._

_This is a large request, and I know it is unfair of me to ask this of you. You have your own demons to battle, your own hurts to heal. But if there is anyone who might be able to get through to him, who might be able to make him see past his anger and his hate, it is you. You and him are so much alike. He was never given assurance by either of his parents. He was never shown he was loved or wanted. He lived as toxic a life as you did, watching his father abuse his mother, taking care of his mother when she was beneath the influence of whatever narcotics she could get her hands upon. He was left alone when he was thirteen. A man-boy who desperately needed a father and love and who got a cold, bitter mentor instead._

_Be for him what I was for you. Be his friend, his confidante, and his sister. Show him how to combat the demons which haunt him. Teach him how to temper his anger with compassion, his hatred with justice. Make him see that he can turn his strengths into something which will prevent others from suffering what you both have. Heal his broken spirit by being for him what I was for you. Lead him back from the dark road he is walking. Do what I so miserably failed to do: reform the Red Hood. But above all? Just love him, Raya. Love him as I loved you._

_As I still love you, imp._

_Forever yours,_

_Bruce._

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_Love him, _Bruce said. _Love him as I love you. _She had deep reservations about that request, given the man he was asking her to take into her care, her heart. She loved both of his other son's, though. She'd vowed to love his youngest son the second she'd seen his precious face staring up at her from within the confines of the thick hood he wore. She'd love this son, too. _I'll try, Bruce, _she said silently to the absent Wayne patriarch. _I promise you, I will try. _She glanced down at the letter once more in her hands before she wiped her eyes and made her way from the library to search for the son that her father wanted her to heal.


End file.
